This is really disturbing. Today I attended the funeral of a friend of mine who died directly as a result of load shedding.
Let this be a warning to anyone who gets caught in an elevator during a power failure ...
My friend Jeremy was going up to his office on the 8th floor of the building in which he worked, when Eskom decided to cut power to his building in the latest round of load shedding. The elevator stopped dead in its tracks, and Jeremy realized that he was destined to spend the next 3 hours stuck in a dark and cramped space with 3 other co-workers. So they decided to try to get out, by prying the doors open. They managed to do this.
The problem, however, was that the elevator wasn’t perfectly lined up with the exit, so they couldn’t simply walk out the lift into the passage. Instead, the bottom of the lift was lined up with a point midway up the wall of the passage. So it would simply be a matter of crouching down, and then jumping down onto the passage floor below. And this is exactly what Jeremy did.
Except that Jeremy lost his balance when he landed on the floor below, and stumbled back a few steps. What he didn’t realize was that he was now stumbling towards an empty lift shaft, and there was nothing he could do to stop himself!
Jeremy fell 6 stories down the empty lift shaft and was pronounced dead by the time the paramedics managed to get to him.
I am so angry at Eskom. I just wish they would take some responsibility for the carnage they have caused.
And please let that be a lesson to you if you are ever caught in an elevator during a power failure. Don’t try to jump out! Rather wait until power has been restored – a boring 3-hour wait is worth more than your life.
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